From the Preface:  

On the subject of housing much has been written in many languages over a period of many years. It might be thought that nothing new remains to be said. And yet in Canada we have hardly begun to attack the real hard core of our housing problem and there is little public understanding of the task before us. Should we not formulate our own solutions to these problems rather than borrow the methods of other countries? To do so, we must know the actual circumstances in Canadian cities and clarify our attitude towards the obvious deficiencies of our housing. What do we want to do about it and whose responsibility is it? In order to answer these questions to our own satisfaction, there must be still more Canadian books on the subject of housing. 

  

Housing problems are of a local  character and cannot be realistically expressed in national terms.  A discussion of housing problems becomes somewhat academic unless consideration is given to actual people and actual places. For this reason the main body of statistical material which is employed in this study has been derived from the Greater Toronto area. But the general principles and conclusions are applicable to other metropolitan areas. The material dealing specifically with the Toronto area has been sand­wiched between introductory and concluding chapters which are intended to indicate these wider national  implications.

  

– Humphrey Carver, June 1948, School of Social Work, University of Toronto